As far as I know, they could invoke prior art from their shiny new licensing from Microsoft.

I really don't know much about patents, what I know is that a) Being granted is only half of the process because b) they have to be defended in court in case of being challenged o using the patent to sue someone.

@wmarone: If MS knows there are portions in Android that infringes on their patent, I don't think they can pick and choose to whom they will enforce this on.

This happens ALL THE TIME. Nokia has similar patent deals with every single cellular device manufacturer out there, and then sued apple when they wouldn't sign up too. The only reason anyone is crying foul is because it's microsoft, even though in the cellular arena Nokia is the biggest patent giant on the block.

What Microsoft wants is to stop, slow, or pollute the adoption of Linux. I think they know by now that they can't stop it. And the slow down is not giving them a lot to cheer for. The last option for them is to pollute it. They can pollute it from within, by inserting their technologies into Linux (Mono, .Net), by negating the free (as in money) aspects of Linux (requiring a license payment for every Linux user), and by corrupting its free (as in freedom) aspects (with software patents). Microsoft is loosing money because of Linux, and is bound to loose a lot more. So, I am sure that Microsoft wouldn't mind throwing some money into this problem as long as it could accomplish its goals regarding Linux.

Microsoft deal with Novell involved the payment of some royalties from Novell to Microsoft. However, it also involved the purchase of several Novel software deals brokered by Microsoft. In the end, Novell made more money directly from the deal than Microsoft. However, Novell lost a good chunk of good will from the Linux community and Microsoft gained a good FUD card that it can wave around to make other deals with.

So, going back to your question about what makes sense in the deal between HTC and Microsoft. Here is a greatly simplified possibility. HTC agrees to pay Microsoft a royalty for every HTC Android phone (a penny per device is sufficient for their purposes). In exchange, Microsoft will give them huge discounts on their Windows OS licenses. However, a requirement of the deal is that full terms have to remain undisclosed. This way, HTC wins financially in the short term, and Microsoft is able continue its goal of corrupting the Linux ethos.

The photo ...

http://techrights.org/2010/04/28/mic...droid-tax-htc/

While the photo is funny, after having spent about 30 minutes reading that article and the referenced article, I have come to the conclusion that nothing written in any of the articles I read seemed to be true.

Ha, ha. Yes, Roy can sometimes be a bit of an alarmist. However, he did have some interesting external links. I enjoyed some of them and didn't seem too far fetched to me. For example this one:

http://www.businessinsider.com/chart...-oracle-2010-4

What part in particular seems untrue to you?

Just adding fuel to the fire...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microso...documents_leak

http://www.catb.org/~esr/halloween/

worth looking at...

I think this deal has everything to do with Steve Jobs

They can choose to selectively enforce, just like you can with copyright. Only trademark forces the holder's hand.

Microsoft "negotiating" a patent licensing deal with companies that use Linux in their products? Yes, it is. Hopefully some day someone will say "NO" and force MS to take them to court and reveal the patents they're talking about.

And yes, the Halloween documents are a good way to look at Microsoft's mindset. I don't think they've changed in the slightest, only tempered by the fact that the abuse conviction would make future cases go badly for them.